It was found that creation of collateral channels in COPD patients allowed expired air to pass out of the lungs and decompressed hyper-inflated lungs. Such methods and devices for creating and maintaining collateral channels are discussed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/633,651, filed on Aug. 7, 2000, now issued U.S. Pat. No. 6,692,494; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/947,144 filed Sep. 4, 2011, now issued U.S. Pat. No. 7,175,644, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/946,706 filed Sep. 4, 2001, now issued U.S. Pat. No. 6,749,606, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/947,126 filed Sep. 4, 2001, now issued U.S. Pat. No. 6,712,812; U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/317,338 filed on Sep. 4, 2001; U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/334,642 filed on Nov. 29, 2001; U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/367,436 filed on Mar. 20, 2002; and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/374,022 filed on Apr. 19, 2002 each of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.